St. Thomas Becket is perhaps the most famous martyr of the middle ages. He was Lord Chancellor of England under King Henry II who later also named him Archbishop of Canterbury. Thomas did not want to be bishop and it soon became clear that he had only been named to this post because the king assumed he would be a pushover who would easily allow him to control the Church in England. For a while, Thomas was actually willing to go along with plan. However, the grace of ordination eventually caught up with him and, to his credit, Thomas responded. He stood up faithfully for the Church and defended her against the intrusions of the king. Thomas eventually gave his life rather than submit any more to the king’s plan.

Today, maybe society isn’t going to threaten us with martyrdom if we don’t play along, but there are pressures. If you stand up the faith and refuse to give into the secular watering down of society then you will suffer. Jesus promised this. How do we allow ourselves to be played by society and merely used? Where are we being called to take a stand like St. Thomas and say that we’ve had enough. The readings continue to speak of light and darkness. Let’ make sure that we continue to follow the path of light.